


Someone to Trust

by TheDoctorIsIcecube



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions
Genre: Gen, Post-Pokemon Black & White, Service Pokémon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-07
Updated: 2016-07-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 04:02:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7419034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoctorIsIcecube/pseuds/TheDoctorIsIcecube
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When his whole world came crashing down, N ran. He was just surprised to find that Touya ran with him. Or, Touya is much shyer than N expected and maybe he wasn't really the hero everyone wanted him be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Running Away

It is surprisingly easy for a person to disappear. N had done it several times in his life, although none as urgent or as completely as this time. And he wasn't alone now, either. He had Touya.

He felt like he barely knew this boy, especially as they desperately sprinted onto the boat that would hopefully take them far away.

Touya was clinging tightly onto his hand as he seemed to do quite often these days, and as soon as they were aboard and safely below deck he collapsed against the wall, breathing hard. N wasn't doing much better, unused to running quite like that. They needed to get into the ship without anyone seeing them, simply because they had no ticket. They both had money, Touya especially, but they didn't want anyone to know they were leaving. Not yet.

"Are you okay?" N asked the question once he had caught his breath, lightly touching Touya's arm in concern. "We're safe now. No one will know we aren't supposed to be here."

Touya shook his head quickly. "Not until we get off this boat." He stopped. "By choice," he added.

"We're on our way to being safe, then. Soon enough we won't ever have to go back to Unova if we don't want to." N opened his arms, letting Touya fall into a gentle hug.

He still didn't know him very well. They'd spoken only a handful of times in the last year, but the look of panic as the castle came crashing down around them had pushed N to act.

He felt like he knew Touya better than he should. There was something of himself in the other boy, the same deep love of Pokemon and the same natural curiosity about the world. N had known no better person to run away with.

He'd known he had to leave. He had nothing. His father turned against him, the whole world thinking he was to blame for everything that happened here.

The whole world, except Touya. As they had run, a desperate sprint for the nearest ferry port to take them out of the region, Touya had blurted out an apology for thinking that N had been behind all of this, an assurance that N was not his enemy and that he never really had been.

N wasn't sure exactly why Touya wanted to leave. Touya was the hero in all of this. The champion of Unova. The strongest trainer in the region.

But he had seen N running and had run after him, and N had not yet had the chance to ask why. Perhaps he should, now that things were finally a little calmer. "Touya, why did you come with me?"

Touya just shook his head. "I was scared," he said. "I don't know. I'm scared now."

"I think you would be mad if you weren't scared right now, Touya." N gave a soft laugh, holding the other a little closer. It was warm, a small comfort in this strange time.

Touya didn't seem to mind the hug, simply letting out a small breathless huff that N presumed was a laugh.  
"There's bound to be a spare room somewhere on this boat," N said thoughtfully. It was late afternoon; he doubted the ship would arrive at it's destination until the next morning. They would need somewhere to sleep.

Touya looked around nervously. "What if they ask for a ticket?" He asked.

"I'll make something up," N said with a confidence that was not reflected in the way he nervously bit at his lip. "I've done things similar to this before, trust me."

Touya nodded, but N could tell that there wasn't the trust he'd asked for. He didn't mind. He didn't really blame Touya.

Carefully releasing the smaller boy from the hug, N offered his hand and started walking down the corridor once Touya had taken it. "Passenger rooms are on this floor, so we need to look for one that has a blue light on the door lock, not red or green. That means it's empty. Tell me if you see one."

Touya nodded. He didn't seem to speak much, which N had never really noticed in him before. They'd mostly argued before.

They walked a short way down the corridor, Touya looking left and N looking right, until N felt a tug on his hand and turned his attention to the empty room Touya had found. "Good. Thank you. This should do nicely," he said, opening the door and looking around. There was only one bed, which might be a problem, but then again maybe it wouldn't be.

Touya seemed to think it would be a problem, though. "I'll sleep on the floor," he offered immediately.

"No, I will." N smiled warmly, taking a pillow from the bed and a blanket from the bedside table and arranging them on the floor. "This escape was my idea, I shall sleep on the floor."

"I'm used to not sleeping in a bed," Touya offered. N didn't see why Touya didn't use Pokémon Centres like he had done, but he wasn't going to ask.

"I insist." N's voice slipped into the more commanding tone he often used around various lower members of Team Plasma. "Take the bed. I will be fine, I promise."  
Touya bit his lip and nodded, but he didn't look at all happy with the decision.

"You will be more comfortable up there, won't you?" N smiled again, a little unsure as to why Touya seemed so against the idea.

Touya nodded. "I, you don't mind if I bring a Pokémon out, do you?"

"Of course I don't. I encourage it, in fact." N spread his arm to the side as if to say 'be my guest'.

Touya smiled and pressed the button on the foremost Pokéball on his belt, revealing a Cinccino.

"Oh, hello!" N bent down to the creature, softly petting the fine fur on it's head. "What's your name, little friend?"

Cinccino purred and told him that her name was Ellie. "Where does her name come from?" N asked.

"It's my mum's name," Touya said shyly, as if naming a Pokemon after his mother was a bad thing to do.

"Do you like your name?" He asked the Pokémon. It was very rare that a Pokémon disliked a name that a trainer had given it if the trainer was caring.

Ellie nodded, before scurrying back to Touya and quickly scaling his leg to perch on his shoulder.  
Touya laughed and poked one of her long tufts of fur. "You're in my face!" He laughed.

She purred and fluffed her fur to tickle him. N smiled at the little display, admiring once again the remarkable bond that Touya shared with all of his Pokemon. "She's the only Pokémon people don't mind me bringing out in public," Touya admitted.

"Really? Who are your others?" N's only constant Pokemon companion was currently under his hat in a much smaller form than usual. She was sleeping, he thought, because he could feel her breathing making her chest rise and fall.

Touya rummaged at his belt, thinking for a moment.   
"I have a Galvantula, Serperior, Hydreigon, Musharna, and Seismitoad with me at the moment. As well as Ellie, of course." Touya froze. "Will I be able to access my PC from another region?"

"Of course. You need to type the Unova access code into the login screen, but it's simple. 11-5-12 is the code." N felt a sudden stirring under his hat, and noticed Touya glance up to it. He removed the cap to reveal his Pokemon, grinning.

"That's Zoroark," Touya smiled. N was glad that he seemed to have relaxed a little more.

She jumped off N's head and flickered oddly in mid air, reverting to her normal size of a little over five foot by the time she reached the floor. N ruffled her hair fondly. She had been through a lot with him.

Touya reached out a tentative hand to her. "Can I?"

Zoroark nodded and bent her head down a little. N just stepped back and watched as Touya stroked her, nervously at first, but soon realising that she wasn't going to bite. She never would, unless provoked. He smiled. Touya really did love Pokémon. Maybe they would get along for whatever length of time they spent together.

"I like her," Touya said with a small smile. "Does she like me? She's so impressive, it would be an honour to be friends with her."

"Do you like him?" He asked his friend. She nodded to Touya and smiled her fang-filled grin.

Touya smiled back, although he was obviously a little intimidated by the amount of sharp teeth in the smile.

"She's been with me for as long as I can remember," N said fondly.

Touya nodded and focused back on Zoroark. Had he really always been this quiet? He seemed so confident when battling.

"I realise we know very little about each other," N said after a while. "We could pass the time together, share stories."

Touya nodded again, but he didn't say anything. Somehow, N wasn't surprised.

"I lived in a forest for several years of my life," N said. That earned a rather doubtful look from Touya. "No, really. I was raised by Pokemon until Ghetsis found me."

Touya flinched almost imperceptibly at the mention of Ghetsis before replying. "I lived in Nuvema Town all my life."

"The only humans I ever spoke to for most of my childhood were my father and my sisters. The Seven Sages were there too, but I'm honestly not sure if they count as human." N chuckled softly at his own joke.

Touya laughed too. "I met several of them. I think they were human."

"Hmm. They taught my lessons more like robots than humans." N didn't like to remember his childhood, but it was made a little easier if he could joke about it.

"I never went to school," Touya confessed. "There was no school where I lived."

"Nuvema must be a very small town. I've met your friends, haven't I? They seem very much devoted to both your friendship and their respective goals." Cheren, if N remembered correctly, was somewhat disapproving of N and all that he stood for.

"There are only a handful of houses. The three of us are the only children." That was very strange. N had always seen lots of children everywhere he went.

"Hmm." N perched on the edge of the bed, patting the space next to him for Touya to sit down. "So you would say you only have two friends?"

Touya shook his head instantly. "I have all my Pokémon."

N had been hoping that he would answer something like that. "I admire your dedication and love for your Pokemon very much. I always have done."

He caught a definite blush on Touya's face as he mumbled his thanks. 

"I have never met anyone else apart from myself who seems to care so deeply and understand so much about their companions. Do you ever talk to your Pokemon? Have you ever tried?"

"I talk to them in my language..." He said. "But that's not what you meant."

"They understand you, of course. But do you ever understand them?" N turned to the Cinccino still on Touya's shoulder, stroking her head again. "Ellie right now is happy, enjoying being close to you, because you are warm, she says."

Touya smiled. "I don't need to try and understand them like that, they speak in their own way."

"How do you mean?" Yet another thing N found himself drawn to in Touya was the boy's little arguments with things he said, his insight into different and usually perfectly valid points of view. N felt as though he became more open minded simply by being in Touya's presence.

"I can tell she's happy because she's close and purring," Touya said, "and I can tell she's warm because of the way her fur is waving."

"Fair enough." N sat silently for a few minutes, just feeling the gentle rock of the boat underneath him and the steady hum of the engines. Touya didn't seem terribly keen to talk, so he focused on mathematical formulas in his head to occupy his brain for a while.  
He had a few things ongoing, it was a shame he'd left all his books and notes behind. Most of his calculations were tucked away in his memory, luckily, so it was easy to pick right back up on theoretical ways to divide by zero. Nothing terribly complicated, but he had had a busy day.

He remembered watching the dragons fly away as a pair, promising to come back if they were needed.  
They seemed to be in a truce for the first time in their long lives, and that made N feel somehow incredibly contented. He felt he had done more than just be the hero- he had rewritten a myth as old as time by ceasing the war between the dragons. And now he was with the opposing hero, waiting with him to escape what the pair of them had done.

"There are going to be legends about us for centuries," N said suddenly. "The two heroes who united the dragons and then simply vanished."

Touya started looking incredibly nervous at that point. He bit his lip and put a hand in Ellie's fur.

"What?" N frowned, wondering if he had said something amiss. "We will be remembered as saviours of the people. Is that not good?"

"I'd rather not stay on everyone's mind," Touya said.  
His words were laden with a strange sort of tension that sent question after question running through N's mind.

"Why are you so keen to disappear? You have everything in Unova; family, friends, the titles of Champion and Hero."

Touya just shook his head. "I don't understand."

"What is there not to understand? You have people in Unova, people who care about you. Me, I- I don't. I'm not sure anyone has ever cared about me, so I can run all that I like."

Touya shook his head again. "I don't understand why."

"Elaborate for me," N said simply. "Perhaps I can help you understand."

"But I don't, I just can't." That made no sense, but N didn't think Touya wanted to hear that.

Touya would tell his story when he was ready, and N would wait patiently for the day. He was deeply interested in the young Champion; there seemed to be a lot more to him than met the eye.

"Do you think there'll be any food?" N asked. Maybe Touya would improve his mood after some food.

"Maybe." Touya sighed, wrapping his arms around himself as if in comfort. "We could go check."

N nodded. "Come with me?" He asked.

"I did say 'we'." Touya stood up, gently taking Ellie off his shoulder and putting her gently back in her Pokéball. "I would take her around on my shoulder but it isn't safe."

"Why not?" He asked. Zoroark shifted her form into a Zorua.

"I don't want her to fall off or for someone to accidentally hit her." Touya glanced down at his feet, making it clear that he didn't really want to answer any more questions.

"Come on," N just smiled and held out his hand again. He hadn't really held anyone's hand before, but Touya seemed to appreciate the contact.

Touya took his hand and followed him out of the room, looking quietly down at his feet. N didn't remember him being so withdrawn and anxious. He wondered if perhaps something had happened to the boy.

"Are you okay?" He asked, remembering only afterwards that Touya hadn't seemed to be comfortable with questions.

He shrugged and bit his lip, still focusing on his feet. N squeezed his hand gently as if to apologise and continued steering the two of them through the ship in search of a meal.

They were allowed into a large restaurant that was somewhat similar to what you would find in a Pokémon centre. N tried to head for the middle, but Touya tugged at his hand and pulled him to a corner. 

"Quieter here," he mumbled by way of explanation.

"Okay." N pulled his trainer card out of his pocket. "I'm paying today."

Touya looked like he wanted to object to that, but didn't, and instead just nodded a little sadly.

"You can tell me if there's anything wrong, Touya," N tried again, this time hoping that the lack of a question would help Touya voice how he felt. There was clearly something wrong and he wanted to help. Not helping would be cruel and he didn't want Touya to hurt any more than necessary, especially if he was sticking around.

Touya sighed, avoiding the question and glancing down at one of the menus on the table instead. "The- the food here looks nice...what are you going to get?"

N had looked at the selection through the other people eating and he hadn't thought anything looked particularly fancy at all, but he wasn't going to complain. He'd definitely had worse at most of the Pokémon centres he'd stayed at during his journey. "Whichever option is vegetarian," he said, wondering what Touya used to eat if he didn't go to Pokémon centres while travelling.

"I'll have whatever you're having," Touya said softly. "I don't really mind what I eat..." He set the menu back down and leaned back in his chair, folding his arms across his chest.

"Do you eat meat?" He asked. He had been brought up not eating it, for obvious reasons, but he'd discovered in his travels that most people actually thought eating meat was okay.

"I try not to." Touya bit his lip. "I did sometimes as a child, but...I can't, now. Not now that I know my Pokemon so well." N nodded in understanding. He could never fathom how people could smile at their Pokémon and then eat others later on in the day. It was disgraceful, and Touya's opinions were only making N like him more.

"I will go order our food." N pushed his chair back, smiling for a moment down at Touya before he went to order. He did hope that Touya was alright with all of this, because at the moment N was almost worried that the boy was going to give them away. He was so scared of almost everything that N was sure it looked suspicious.

Once their food had been ordered, he returned to the table, trying to ignore the fact that Touya flinched as he sat down. He really WAS shy. "Touya, are you sure you're alright?" Touya just shrugged again and didn't provide a proper answer. "Touya, I can try to help if you'll tell me what's wrong." But if he didn't know then all he could do was try and prevent the problems from causing disaster.

Touya sighed, drumming the fingers of one hand on the table while his other hand ran anxiously through his hair. "What are we doing?" He looked up at N, eyes full of worry. "This isn't going to work."

"Why shouldn't it?" He asked, trying to look reassuring. He'd done this so many times before within Unova and it worked every time. "You're not a criminal, they won't look for you if you just let them know that you're okay."

"They're going to find us and take us back home," Touya said softly. "And then my mother is never going to let me out of the house again."

N would have laughed if Touya hadn't sounded so obviously fearful. He probably thought that this was really what was going to happen. "You've fully proved yourself as more capable than over half the trainers in the region, and you did it all without using the services for trainers. You could call your mother and tell her you're doing okay."

"She'll cry on the phone because she's worried, and then I'll have to go back." Touya looked desperately at N, shaking his head. "I can't call her. But I can't just run away without telling her where I am."

"Excuse me sir, ma'am, your order?" Touya jumped half a foot and hurriedly fixed a confident smile on his face when he realised that the person was there with their food.

"Thank you," he mumbled when the plate was set down in front of him. He glanced over at N, and the other trainer rolled his eyes at him. Touya couldn't help it- a very slight smile pulled at the corners of his mouth. "Did he just call you ma'am?"

"It's not uncommon," N said, smiling back and looking down at his food. "You'd think maybe the champion would be able to tell, but he called me 'young lady' when I met him."

"Wow." Touya picked up his fork, examining his food before taking a mouthful. "Hmm...this is nice. Feels like forever since I had a proper meal..." 

N looked at him, trying to check if he was joking. Everything was lukewarm and the meal was average at best. "When did you last stay at a Pokémon centre?"

"A while ago." Touya shrugged. "I can't remember exactly when...I know I stopped going to them by the time I had half my badges."

"Why?" As someone who had grown up mostly alone, N had bounced between hating human company and wanting as much of it as he could get, but he'd barely ever stayed away from Pokémon centres.

Touya shrugged. "Too many people usually...and they were all the sort of people who fought with their Pokemon and always kept them in Pokéballs and didn't seem to treat them with any respect."

N had seen that a lot, but he tried to tune it out. He'd spent a while lecturing people about it, and eventually people learned to leave him alone at Pokémon centres, seeing as he often encountered familiar faces along his journey. "You have done remarkably well without the assistance of Pokemon centres," N commented. "I'm really quite impressed."

Touya just shrugged and concentrated on his food, which he was eating remarkably quickly. Had he spent recent nights going hungry? N almost wanted to order him more food, but Touya would never let him pay for more than one meal. He picked at his own food- he'd always been a fussy eater, and he didn't feel all that hungry today. Nonetheless, he managed to force down about half of the meal, noticing Touya eyeing his leftovers hungrily. "Have them if you want, I'm not eating any more of this."

Touya smiled even though he looked quite embarrassed and swapped plates with N. "Bianca always said that I should stock up on food more," he said quietly.

"She sounds intelligent," N observed. Looking more closely at Touya, there was a slightly unhealthy thinness to him that was only seen in the sick or the malnourished. "I'll make sure you eat enough from now on." He'd heard of this sort of thing in one of the speeches his father made once. Children being sent out on Pokémon adventures, unable to look after themselves properly, and even if they were good at Pokémon their journeys were cut short due to health problems. He'd always linked it in with caring more about battling than the safety of others.

"I'm capable of taking care of myself," Touya said defensively. "I just...forget to eat sometimes. Only when there's more important things to do. And there's been a lot of important things to do recently..."

"I'm sorry about that, really," he said. He felt bad for dragging Touya into this. He'd always thought that Touya was just a little better than other people. That he cared as well as doing immoral things. He'd wanted to see how far the caring went, and he'd been manipulated into a horrible plot by his father.

"It wasn't your fault," Touya said immediately. "I know it wasn't your fault. It was...his fault." He shivered even at the thought of Ghetsis. "Don't blame yourself."

N sighed. "I'm meant to be smarter than that, but I wasn't." He'd thought about it a lot as it happened and wondered if he could have avoided it. If he'd been smarter, if he'd noticed the signs, he could have prevented the whole thing.

"Please don't blame yourself..." Touya sounded a little distressed, and N wisely decided to change the subject. 

"If you've finished eating, we could have a look around the ship? A big place like this, there's bound to be something to do."

Touya nodded, but he still looked quite nervous. N had a feeling that this was going to be a constant thing, but he didn't really mind. It was nice to have some human company he could trust.


	2. Nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> N and Touya go to sleep for the night, but not without a disturbance.

It was late at night when N and Touya finally found their way back to their room. Touya tried to insist that N sleep in the one bed that was in the room again, but N refused to go near it. He knew that Touya really did need somewhere comfortable to sleep. He hadn't slept on the floor for a while, not since he started his journey across Unova, but he didn't think Touya had even slept inside for a good month or so.

Touya grudgingly accepted the bed eventually, curling up small under the duvet with Ellie. N made himself comfortable on the floor, watching Touya for a few long minutes. With Ellie curled up close to him, N could almost believe that Touya slept like that every night, but he knew otherwise. He wondered; the wilds between each town and city of Unova were often very cold at night. Had Touya slept out in the open, or had he been one of those people who was frequently shunted around from abandoned building to abandoned building by the police?

N stayed awake and watched until Touya fell asleep, hoping that one day he would have a chance to learn more about the trainer's past. His thoughts often kept him awake until the early hours of the morning, but today he was tired enough to drift off almost immediately.

When he woke up, he didn't realise what had woken him. Normally, he woke on his own or when one of his friends woke him up to get him to pay attention to them, but this was different. First, he checked to see if the light had woken him, but there was none. It was still dark outside. He glanced around, wondering if the rocking motion of the ship had knocked something over in the room. Nothing seemed out of place, though. N was about to dismiss it as just a random odd thing when he heard a small whimper from Touya's bed, followed by a blanket-muffled desperate plea of 'no, no, please no'.

Oh no. No, he didn't have a clue how to deal with someone having a nightmare. He used to get them all the time when he was younger, but he'd never learnt how to help someone else when they were having one. Did he wake Touya up? Or was he not meant to do that? He could never remember.

Touya spared him the decision by waking up himself, jolting back to consciousness with a sort of spasm that almost knocked poor Ellie out of his bed. The little Pokemon called out, concerned, and snuggled herself tight against Touya's chest.

"Touya?" N asked, trying to be as quiet as he could be. He didn't know if there was anyone in the rooms next to them, but he doubted they'd appreciate being woken up by the pair of them.

Touya didn't respond at first. N untangled himself from his blankets and stepped softly over to the bed, kneeling down next to it. "Touya? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine I'm sorry, did I wake you up?" Out of all the things Touya must be feeling at the moment and he chose to apologise for waking him up.

"It's okay, I was already awake," he lied. He didn't feel bad for lying. It would make Touya even more upset if he said that he had been woken up.

"Oh." Touya sat up, holding Ellie close to him. "I'm sorry, don't worry about me. I'm fine. I promise I'm fine." There was certain shakiness to his voice that betrayed just how far from fine he was, and N couldn't keep a slight frown off his face.

"I'm going to turn the light on," he said, "and then I'm going to come and sit with you." That's what Anthea always did for him, and every night it would make him feel a lot better.

"You don't have to," Touya protested weakly, but N had already crossed the room and flipped the light switch. He squinted a bit in the sudden harsh light, going back over to perch on the edge of Touya's bed. 

"How about you tell me what you were dreaming? I promise not to judge you, whatever it was." Touya shook his head and pushed his face slightly further into Ellie's fur. He'd moved backwards slightly to rest against the back of the bed and he still looked incredibly shaken by whatever he'd dreamt. "Alright." N had been this way himself many a time, still half asleep and too scared to tell his sister what he'd been dreaming. "Do you want anything? A glass of water, maybe?"

Touya shook his head again. "I'm fine, really. You can go back to sleep." His voice was slightly muffled through Ellie's fur, but it was clear enough that N could tell he was still scared even though his face had relaxed a little.

"I'm staying right here until you're calm enough to talk to me," he insisted, voice gentle but firm. "I won't let you be alone. I promise."

This time Touya nodded, and N could see a small smile on his face. "They're not that bad really," he said. "It's not as scary now I'm awake."

"Will you tell me anyway? Please?" N reached out, carefully resting a hand on Touya's knee. "I might be able to help."

Touya sighed. "I'm fine now, honestly." He did sound a little better now, but N was hesitant to let him go and be alone again so quickly. "I just used to spend a lot of time trying to find sleeping spots where I knew Team Plasma would never find me and the fear is still there."

"Oh, I'm sorry..." N sighed sadly, recalling several times that Team Plasma grunts had reported back to him with the news that they'd found, battled, and lost to Touya in the middle of the night. He felt awful about all the caring trainers whose lives had been disrupted by his selfish and misinformed desire to take Pokémon away from every single one of them. He'd spread fear and worry through almost every citizen of the region and he felt terrible.

"It wasn't your fault," Touya mumbled. "You didn't know what Ghetsis was doing, you just wanted to make Pokemon happy."

"I'm still sorry," he said. "I can't really...it's hard to talk about, but I'm so sorry for what I've done." Touya didn't respond to that, and they sat in silence for a while, N's hand still on Touya's knee, until N realised that Touya had fallen asleep with his head in Ellie's fur. Well, at least he wasn't upset anymore. "Look after him," N whispered to Ellie, and she purred at him in response. N helped Touya lie back down and pulled the blankets back over him. Then he settled back down on his own set of blankets on the floor and managed to settle into a light sleep until morning, this time undisturbed.


End file.
